The gang at golden-road.net is abuzz about the retirement of not one, but two pricing games.

Joker, I can understand. I always hated it — it seems counterintuitive that you’re trying to DISCARD a certain card. It’s also pretty similar to Shell Game and Bonus Game, but with an ugly set.

Poker Game, I don’t have strong opinions about, since it was played fairly infrequently. The consensus, which may be wrong, is that it was killed by being limited to inexpensive prizes. What’s significant is that it’s the oldest game to ever be retired — it was introduced in 1975.

39 years and roughly one thousand cartoons after “Sinkin’ in the Bathtub”, Warner Bros. Cartoons came to an end with an unfortunately titled short named “Injun Trouble.” Last fall I posted a link to this cartoon, with Matthew Hunter’s commentary.

For obvious reasons, it’s generally been kept off television, and is hard to find. But it was included in 1972’s syndicated “The Merrie Melodies Show.” And that series is now airing on Teletoon Retro. Incredibly, the episode in question aired this week. I marvel at this network’s ability to come up with rare stuff like this, and to air it in pretty much its original form.